Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans today to stop the issue of arrest warrants for foreign officials such as Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and other Israeli war criminals who were forced to cancel planned trips to London after arrest warrants were issued against them. Under Brown’s proposals, the Crown Prosecution Service will take over responsibility for prosecuting war crimes and other violations of international law. Currently magistrates have to consider the case for an arrest warrant to be issued.

Lynn is director of the Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Initiative, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and author of "Too Big to Fail" about the dangers of monopoly capitalism.

The US president has urged congress to vote on his healthcare reforms plan in the next few weeks despite continued opposition against the measure by Republicans.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has failed to win Brazil's support for more sanctions against Iran, with the Brazilian president warning the world not to "push Iran into a corner".

Chinese officials have announced the country's military budget will rise by 7.5 per cent this year, substantially lower than previous years and ending more than two decades of annual double-digit increases.

Five people have been killed in Afghanistan after armed men opened fire at a group of Pakistani construction workers on their way to work.

At least 63 people, including women and children, have been killed in a stampede after the gate of a Hindu temple collapsed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Four men who confessed to planning bomb attacks on US targets in Germany have been convicted by a court in Duesseldorf of conspiracy to murder and of belonging to a foreign terrorist group.

Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who has been accused of inciting hatred against Muslims, has scored major gains in local elections, making him a serious challenger for power in a June national election, preliminary results show.

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has said he plans to block private groups from seeking arrest warrants against visiting foreign officials, following a dispute with Israel.

Early voting has begun for at least 800,000 government employees in Iraq's parliamentary elections.

An Egyptian appeals court has overturned the convictions of a ruling party member and a former policeman sentenced to death for the murder of a Lebanese pop star.

On March 7, Iraq will hold national parliamentary elections in what is believed to be a critical stage in the country's political development since the US-led invasion in 2003.

US transportation safety officials have said they are investigating complaints from some Toyota owners that their vehicles are still accelerating unexpectedly, even after being repaired under the company's recent recall programme.